Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19980128.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part XXII: Certifying The VALUE Of Living In TRUE Righteousness As Believers
(Luke 6:27-49)
  1. Introduction
    1. We believers are called of God to practice true godliness as opposed to hypocrisy, cf. 1 Pet. 1:15-16.
    2. However, the believer may not think that living righteously according to Scripture is all that important, that it makes one a bit too straight-laced for his own good!
    3. In reality, righteousness is necessary to avoid embarrassing tragedy, and Jesus motivates His disciples to live uprightly with this motivation as follows:
  2. Certifying The VALUE Of Living In TRUE Righteousness As Believers, Luke 6:27-49.
    1. Jesus gave this message to His disciples according to Luke 6:20, and that after conflicting with the religious but falsely-called upright Pharisees and scribes, much to their humiliation, Luke 6:6-11.
      1. This message was given to Jesus' disciples according to Luke 6:20.
      2. It was given after the unbelieving, unsaved Pharisees and Scribes had unsuccessfully tried to entrap Jesus into being convicted of a sin, and were humiliated to their fury in the proc ess, Lk. 6:6-11.
    2. Accordingly, Jesus' message illustrates the true righteousness His disciples were to have opposite the false and embarrassing righteousness of Jesus' religious opponents who had falsely tried to corner Him:
      1. God's true righteousness, unlike the unsaved religious man's lifestyle, makes one love unconditionally, and Luke records seven characteristic actions of such an unconditional love:
        1. True righteousness makes one love his enemies, 6:27a
        2. It makes one do good to those who hate him, Luke 6:27b.
        3. It makes one bless those who curse him, Lk. 6:28a.
        4. It makes one pray for those who mistreat him, Lk. 6:28b.
        5. It makes one avoid taking vengeance, avoid retaliating, Lk. 6:29a.
        6. It makes one give freely and unconditionally, Luke 6:29b-30.
        7. It makes one initiate the kind of treatment of others that he would want to receive, Lk. 6:31.
        8. This type of righteousness marks one off as a child of the righteous heavenly Father unlike the lack of such righteousness in unsaved, religious people, Luke 6:32-35.
      2. God's true righteousness, unlike the unsaved religious man's lifestyle, makes one consider the reactionary responses to his relating to others so as to minimize troubles with them, Lk. 6:36-38:
        1. Jesus told His disciples to show mercy to other people as their Father in heaven is merciful, Lk. 6:36. This is dramatically different from the ungodly self-righteous Pharisees and scribes.
        2. Such righteousness anticipates that judging others leads to being judged (6:37a), condemning others leads to being condemned (6:37b), pardoning others leads to their pardoning in response (6:37c) and giving leads to receiving much from others, Luke 6:38.
        3. Thus, the godly consider the responses of others before they relate to them!
      3. The quality of one's righteousness will expose itself, and a false righteousness will humiliate one so that he had better seriously address sin in his life and follow Christ or suffer much humiliation, Lk. 6:39-45:
        1. False righteousness, itself spiritually blind, exposes itself as such by getting one himself and others into deep, embarrassing, costly trouble, Lk. 6:39.
        2. One becomes like the one he follows, Lk. 6:40. Thus, one is wise following Jesus if he wants to be honored, not embarrassed. That means that he must take care to address sin in his own life first before trying to lead others, or his actions will backfire on his relation with followers, Lk. 6:41-42.
        3. Even one's words expose his heart, so one had better work on his heart and his words, Lk. 6:43-45.
        4. Thus, one is best paying attention to the words of Jesus and addressing his need to clear up sin in his life now, for doing so or not doing so will make all the difference in the welfare of his life, 6:46-49.
Lesson: Since how Biblically correct we are in our lives inevitably becomes public knowledge to the affecting of all relationships and our lives' welfares, we have no choice but to get very serious about correcting sin in our lives. We mustn't treat our spiritual status with indifference, but FACE our status with God and CORRECT what needs correcting NOW or suffer consequences, cf. Gal. 6:1.